Not a great deal of MP action this week. I had a letter from my own MP (dated 23 October) in response to my email to him (8 October) saying that ‘In order to ensure that Ministers are aware of your concerns and to provide you with an official and fully informed response’ … ‘I…
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Red Kites in October
I’m keeping a note of whether I see Red Kites on each day through the year – the October tally was an impressive 24 days out of 31. January: 22 days out of 31. February: 24 days out of 28. March: 26 days out of 31. April: 20 days out of 30. May: 7 days…
Dutch People’s Walk for Wildlife
Last Sunday some friends in The Netherlands had their own Walk for Wildlife – and they had better weather than we did! Here is the message that Chris Packham sent them in advance. And a link to an account of the walk – in English (and for our Dutch readers here, here) It looks good…
Wight White-tails?
Press release from Roy Dennis Foundation and Forestry Commission England: White-tailed Eagle. Photo: Mike Crutch Invitation to White-tailed Eagle public meetings Members of the public are being invited to three public meetings to be held on the Isle of Wight on 12th and 13th November to find out more about a proposed project aiming to…
Banning driven grouse shooting – a rising tide.
Let us start with a quote: 31 October 2016 Therese CoffeyI have heard the concerns of some hon. Members that birds of prey, particularly hen harriers, are deliberately being killed. The Government take the illegal persecution of raptors very seriously. On the missing hen harriers in the last fortnight, the matter has been referred to…
Wuthering Moors 76 – more moor burning
Michael Gove has asked moorland owners to be good boys (and girls – although all the landowners in the room at the time were actually men) and to stop damaging blanket bogs through burning them. Burning is carried out so that men (and a few women) can shoot lots of Red Grouse for fun as…
See you in Kent on Saturday?
Here is a link to the booking form but I’m not sure whether there are any places left… It looks like a good event and I might even see some birds on the trip.
Midhope Moors – burned blanket bog
Burned Sphagnum photographed yesterday on Midhope Moors, Peak District. And here is Midhope Moors with the blanket bog shaded in buff from the Defra MAGIC system https://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx And some more burned Sphagnum up there in the blanket bog. Well, this looks to me like a recent burn. I understand that Wakefield Farms are the landowners…
Social impact
Do you recall that over a year ago a PhD position was advertised at the University of Northampton, just down the road from me, on the social impact of driven game shooting. At the time I wrote this. Yesterday I went to a seminar on the first year of the study and heard how the…
Policing the burning agreement
This was the example of moorland burning I saw on the northern edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park three weeks ago. Does this comply with the voluntary agreement made by many grouse moors not to burn on blanket bogs? There are a couple of things that I would need to know before I could…